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truepennyQ: You wrote in your most recent Q&A that Mildmay is a champion for the underdog. Do you feel that in hindsight, Felix is also inclined that way?
Yes, he acts like an asshole (although I cherish the character very much) but the worst trouble he gets in is mostly because he tries to help wandering spirits, repairing things that are broken (the Virtu itself), revenge on behalf of Gideon and Mildmay, and the things in Corambis which I won´t mention. Would you say that maybe Felix is the champion of the ´unsaved´? As a total projection of the complexities he himself has to deal with?
A: Yes. Mélusine p. 332:
Q: Does Mildmay have precognitive abilities? There are a few times when he has foreshadowing of something going wrong, and he says that whenever he ignores that feeling, it always does. He can't see ghosts, but he does seem sometimes that he can feel when they're there (Boneprince's Garden, for example), but that might just be because he doesn't ignore the possibility, rather than feeling them directly.
And if he does, does that mean that these things aren't automatically tied into having magic or not? Like how some annemar can see ghosts?
A: Like his sense of direction, Mildmay's instincts are preternatural. I don't know the exact mechanism, but I think it's more a matter of processing subliminal cues than it is precognition or clairvoyance.
Q: I will probably regret asking this, but what does Felix mean by his keeper doing "lamprey" stuff? Isn't that a kind of eel?
A: Yes, a lamprey is a kind of sucker-mouthed, parasitical eel--or eel-like marine animal. In Mélusine, the word is used to refer to child prostitutes who specialize in fellatio.
Q: On what historical works did you base the traditions and theories of magic in the books?
A: Um. I didn't. To the best of my knowledge, I made it all up.
Q: Re: Apprentice to Elves: Are you enjoying it as much as you did the first one? Or haven't you started it yet?
A: We haven't started it yet, as both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala and I are currently in the part of the creative cycle after the forest fire has been through and before things start to grow again. But we have a lot of shiny ideas.
Q: Ages ago you said that something you almost threw out in the first 50 pages of _Melusine_ became important in Corambis. Tragically I have lent out my copy of the book, so I can't look for it. Do you remember what you were talking about? Sorry I can't find the link to your exact quote. Or any other example of something you insisted on keeping without knowing why that did turn out to be important.
A: Oh dear. I'm afraid I don't remember that specific thing--but I can give you the example of Nera, which my editor wanted me to take out of Mélusine (because, as always, we were severely pressed for space) and I insisted on holding onto, even though I didn't know why. Come to find out, it's vital to The Mirador and not insignificant to Corambis.
... the thing I was talking about may have been the dream Felix has of being lost in a labyrinth on page 19.
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.
Q: What about the Jeanne-chat-type of names? I know enough French to make out the mechanism, but what's behind those names? Are they nicknames or actual given names? And why is it done only with Jean/Jeanne?
A: No, they're real given names. It's an extrapolation of the Francophone habit of combining Marie with almost anything (the example I can remember off the top of my head is one of Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January books, where there's a minor character named Marie-Neige: Mary-Snow). I swapped it over to Jean/Jeanne so that it could be a co-ed phenomenon. The reason in Meduse (the world of the books) is that Jean/ne is such a common name that people started putting common nouns with it to distinguish one from another. So there's Jean-Soleil (John-Sun) and Jean-Tigre (John-Tiger) and Jeanne-Chatte (Jane-Cat) and Jeanne-Bette (Jane-Betty)--it doesn't have to be a common noun; it can be a (more ordinary) compound name like Marie Antoinette or Maria Theresa. (But making up the names with common nouns is more fun.)
And here's a question that's been asked a number of times:
Q: One thing that appealed to me most about Mildmay's character was the vast repertoire of stories that he knew. Since I knew that you'd based some of Mehitabel's plays on real plays, I was wondering whether any of Mildmay's stories had real-life equivalents.
Q: Do you know any of the stories that Mildmay tells. I'm currently in the middle of rereading Melusine, and I want desperately to hear the whole stories about the Iron Black Wolves, Jennico Sun Eyes, The Princess of Comets (not Comments as I just typed), and all of those poor doomed rulers of Marathat. To say nothing of the cultural significance of Sunlings.
Q: Will you ever write an anthology of the amazing stories that Mildmay tells, such as the one about Jenico Sun-Eyes (Melusine, pg 136 in the paperback)? They sound amazing and I want to here them. On a similar note, are any of them based on extant stories, myths and legends? if so, which?
A: Sadly, the answer to almost all of this is, no. Mildmay's stories are deliberately left very sketchy precisely so that I wouldn't have to write them. Writing folktales that sound like genuine folktales, instead of like twee and overly clever pastiches of folktales, is hard; I did try to write the story he tells the merrows--Julien Tinderbox and the vixen named Grief--but I have since become exceedingly grateful that it had to be cut for space, since I was uncertain about it at the time and have since come to find it embarrassing.
By and large, I put the story references together the same way I put together the scraps of history, so that the tiny bits you get can act like miniature poems. And there are some real-world analogues. Brunhilde (I don't remember how I ended up spelling her name, but I didn't do anything crazy, so she's recognizable), for example, is Brunhilde, only obviously instead of the stupid self-sacrifice ring of fire blah blah patriarchal oppression blah, she got to go around having adventures instead. Mark Polaris is Marco Polo. Things like that. But the stories themselves don't have analogues--or if they do, they're severely twisted. As for example the story Felix mentions in Corambis that's clearly Sleeping Beauty, except the prince is a blind embroiderer.
And you do at least get the rest of the story about the Iron-black Wolves.
And to round out the issue of Mildmay's stories:
Q: For a street kid with no formal education, Mildmay sure knows a lot about Melusine royalty/lineage and Mirador intrigue. Even more than some people who have an interest in the subject, or who live in the Mirador. I know he picks up stories, but where did he learn all these esoteric facts?
A: Popular culture in the Lower City has kept the history of the Marathine monarchy alive, whereas in the Mirador it's been severely out of fashion--not to say suppressed--since Michael Teverius murdered his cousin John Cordelius and declared the Protectorate. So the Lower City knows all about the kings and queens, the Thestonarii, the Ophidii, the Cordelii, whereas the Mirador has the history of the Teverii down cold.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
Yes, he acts like an asshole (although I cherish the character very much) but the worst trouble he gets in is mostly because he tries to help wandering spirits, repairing things that are broken (the Virtu itself), revenge on behalf of Gideon and Mildmay, and the things in Corambis which I won´t mention. Would you say that maybe Felix is the champion of the ´unsaved´? As a total projection of the complexities he himself has to deal with?
A: Yes. Mélusine p. 332:
Where ordinary people--even ordinary crazy people--would've run screaming, he was going to do what these people needed so they could rest. And, I mean, he was my brother and everything, but I think that was where I figured out he was worth it, even if he was a pain and a half when he was down the well and a real prick when he wasn't. Because he was going to help these people who needed help, even though they'd been dead for Kethe knows how long and had seriously fucked up our already fucked-up lives besides.
Q: Does Mildmay have precognitive abilities? There are a few times when he has foreshadowing of something going wrong, and he says that whenever he ignores that feeling, it always does. He can't see ghosts, but he does seem sometimes that he can feel when they're there (Boneprince's Garden, for example), but that might just be because he doesn't ignore the possibility, rather than feeling them directly.
And if he does, does that mean that these things aren't automatically tied into having magic or not? Like how some annemar can see ghosts?
A: Like his sense of direction, Mildmay's instincts are preternatural. I don't know the exact mechanism, but I think it's more a matter of processing subliminal cues than it is precognition or clairvoyance.
Q: I will probably regret asking this, but what does Felix mean by his keeper doing "lamprey" stuff? Isn't that a kind of eel?
A: Yes, a lamprey is a kind of sucker-mouthed, parasitical eel--or eel-like marine animal. In Mélusine, the word is used to refer to child prostitutes who specialize in fellatio.
Q: On what historical works did you base the traditions and theories of magic in the books?
A: Um. I didn't. To the best of my knowledge, I made it all up.
Q: Re: Apprentice to Elves: Are you enjoying it as much as you did the first one? Or haven't you started it yet?
A: We haven't started it yet, as both
matociquala and I are currently in the part of the creative cycle after the forest fire has been through and before things start to grow again. But we have a lot of shiny ideas.Q: Ages ago you said that something you almost threw out in the first 50 pages of _Melusine_ became important in Corambis. Tragically I have lent out my copy of the book, so I can't look for it. Do you remember what you were talking about? Sorry I can't find the link to your exact quote. Or any other example of something you insisted on keeping without knowing why that did turn out to be important.
A: Oh dear. I'm afraid I don't remember that specific thing--but I can give you the example of Nera, which my editor wanted me to take out of Mélusine (because, as always, we were severely pressed for space) and I insisted on holding onto, even though I didn't know why. Come to find out, it's vital to The Mirador and not insignificant to Corambis.
... the thing I was talking about may have been the dream Felix has of being lost in a labyrinth on page 19.
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.
Q: What about the Jeanne-chat-type of names? I know enough French to make out the mechanism, but what's behind those names? Are they nicknames or actual given names? And why is it done only with Jean/Jeanne?
A: No, they're real given names. It's an extrapolation of the Francophone habit of combining Marie with almost anything (the example I can remember off the top of my head is one of Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January books, where there's a minor character named Marie-Neige: Mary-Snow). I swapped it over to Jean/Jeanne so that it could be a co-ed phenomenon. The reason in Meduse (the world of the books) is that Jean/ne is such a common name that people started putting common nouns with it to distinguish one from another. So there's Jean-Soleil (John-Sun) and Jean-Tigre (John-Tiger) and Jeanne-Chatte (Jane-Cat) and Jeanne-Bette (Jane-Betty)--it doesn't have to be a common noun; it can be a (more ordinary) compound name like Marie Antoinette or Maria Theresa. (But making up the names with common nouns is more fun.)
And here's a question that's been asked a number of times:
Q: One thing that appealed to me most about Mildmay's character was the vast repertoire of stories that he knew. Since I knew that you'd based some of Mehitabel's plays on real plays, I was wondering whether any of Mildmay's stories had real-life equivalents.
Q: Do you know any of the stories that Mildmay tells. I'm currently in the middle of rereading Melusine, and I want desperately to hear the whole stories about the Iron Black Wolves, Jennico Sun Eyes, The Princess of Comets (not Comments as I just typed), and all of those poor doomed rulers of Marathat. To say nothing of the cultural significance of Sunlings.
Q: Will you ever write an anthology of the amazing stories that Mildmay tells, such as the one about Jenico Sun-Eyes (Melusine, pg 136 in the paperback)? They sound amazing and I want to here them. On a similar note, are any of them based on extant stories, myths and legends? if so, which?
A: Sadly, the answer to almost all of this is, no. Mildmay's stories are deliberately left very sketchy precisely so that I wouldn't have to write them. Writing folktales that sound like genuine folktales, instead of like twee and overly clever pastiches of folktales, is hard; I did try to write the story he tells the merrows--Julien Tinderbox and the vixen named Grief--but I have since become exceedingly grateful that it had to be cut for space, since I was uncertain about it at the time and have since come to find it embarrassing.
By and large, I put the story references together the same way I put together the scraps of history, so that the tiny bits you get can act like miniature poems. And there are some real-world analogues. Brunhilde (I don't remember how I ended up spelling her name, but I didn't do anything crazy, so she's recognizable), for example, is Brunhilde, only obviously instead of the stupid self-sacrifice ring of fire blah blah patriarchal oppression blah, she got to go around having adventures instead. Mark Polaris is Marco Polo. Things like that. But the stories themselves don't have analogues--or if they do, they're severely twisted. As for example the story Felix mentions in Corambis that's clearly Sleeping Beauty, except the prince is a blind embroiderer.
And you do at least get the rest of the story about the Iron-black Wolves.
And to round out the issue of Mildmay's stories:
Q: For a street kid with no formal education, Mildmay sure knows a lot about Melusine royalty/lineage and Mirador intrigue. Even more than some people who have an interest in the subject, or who live in the Mirador. I know he picks up stories, but where did he learn all these esoteric facts?
A: Popular culture in the Lower City has kept the history of the Marathine monarchy alive, whereas in the Mirador it's been severely out of fashion--not to say suppressed--since Michael Teverius murdered his cousin John Cordelius and declared the Protectorate. So the Lower City knows all about the kings and queens, the Thestonarii, the Ophidii, the Cordelii, whereas the Mirador has the history of the Teverii down cold.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-19 05:12 pm (UTC)...I knew that you'd based some of Mehitabel's plays on real plays...
I'd be interested to know which "real" plays served as the underpinnings for the plays in The Mirador--I'd especially like to read the night-vigil scene from Edith Pelpheria, if it really exists. It was fascinating but frustrating to be reading *about* the plays but not be able to read the plays themselves! I read The Mirador at about the same time as Ha'Penny and found them an interesting pair. I thought your actress trying to prepare for a major new role while dealing with a lot of personal and political difficulties was even more convincing (and interesting) than Walton's. Sue Lambiris
no subject
Date: 2009-04-19 05:31 pm (UTC)Also, while I have no questions, since you said references to non-(uh, whatever you call the Melusine series) works were welcome, I thought The Bone Key a most excellent book of ghost stories, even though I felt it much closer to the old-fashioned Brit type of ghost story than the Lovecraftiness you were also aiming for. Oh! I thought of a question!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-19 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-19 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 03:52 am (UTC)In Quebec it was, and still is, pretty common to see composed first names for boys and girls. For example, Louis-Joseph Papineau and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (19th-century politicians), Paul-Émile Borduas (20th-century abstract painter), and Louis-José Houde (a current comedian.) And growing up and reading Quebec kids' books in the 80's, it seemed like every other male character was named Jean-François.
Although I don't think anyone does it with common nouns, it's not at all unusual to see male and female names mixed together, like Marie-Joseph, Marie-Pierre, Pierre-Marie, Jean-Marie, or Joseph-Marie.
I'd always assumed that your names like Jean-Tigre and Jean-Soleil (both of which I love) were based directly on those type of real-world analogues; funny to think that they weren't.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 04:13 pm (UTC)Sorry if it sounded patronizing--I'm just very enthusiastically interested in Quebec and Quebec French. (Even though I know Felix, Mildmay, et al. aren't speaking French, I still totally think of Mildmay as speaking joual.)
no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 04:23 pm (UTC)Although I don't know very much about Quebec and Quebecois French, I'm certainly interested in learning more, so your comments were very welcome! You just sounded so disappointed, I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 05:01 pm (UTC)It's really pretty neat how relationships between dialects or dominant/subcultures can be so similar from one language or culture to another. If Mildmay had been written by a Londoner, his accent might have been based on Cockney; if Mélusine were translated into Quebec French, he might well be made to speak joual.